Huerta de Soto received a bachelor's degree in economics in 1978 and a PhD in economics in 1992, from Complutense University. His MBA in actuarial science is from Stanford University, 1985.[1][5] In 2000 he became a full professor of Political Economy at Universidad Rey Juan Carlos in Madrid.[6]

Economist Leland B. Yeager has cited Huerta de Soto as an example of scorn in economics. Yeager states that Soto scorns general equilibrium theory, citing a passage in which Soto refers to the "pernicious analysis" of price equilibrium at "the intersection of mysterious curves or functions lacking any real existence...even in the minds of the actors involved."[17]

Huerta de Soto advocates full-reserve banking, a system in which 100% reserve requirements for banks would prevent any expansion of credit.[18][19]

In 2006, Huerta de Soto wrote an 876-page book on the subject, published in English by the Mises Institute as Money, Bank Credit, and Economic Cycles.[20] Samuel Gregg reviewed the book writing that "[t]he sheer length of this text will demand much time and concentration of readers wishing to fully absorb its insights. Certainly there is an element of repetition at different points. This tends, however, to reflect De Soto’s determination to demonstrate that the moral, legal, and economic dimensions of money, credit, and banking cannot be artificially separated from each other without risking the loss of a sound understanding of the subject." [21] In the journal New Perspectives on Political Economy, Ludwig van den Hauwe suggested that "[e]ven if it may be difficult at this time to gauge in any precise manner the effect the book will have on the economics profession at large, there can be no doubt the book is destined to become a classic, both by virtue of the subject matters that are treated and in virtue of the manner in which they are treated: thoroughly and authoritatively." [22]

Larry J. Sechrest's review of Huerta de Soto's book, also published by the Mises Institute, stated that the author attempted to provide "final and decisive proof" that fractional reserve banking is incompatible with private property rights, morality, and a stable economy. Sechrest wrote that although Huerta de Soto presented a painstaking investigation of legal theory, banking history, business cycles, and medieval theological doctrine, a great deal of it is irrelevant to the book's thesis. Sechrest concludes "Above all, Huerta de Soto refuses to even consider the possibility that banks’ customers may have been quite willing to face some risk exposure in exchange for the benefits 100 percent reserve banks are unable to provide" and believes that "any departure from 100 percent reserve banking is automatically taken to be evidence of malfeasance by bankers, even when there is no clear data on the details of the contractual relations negotiated by depositors."[23]

In his chapter on "Attempts to Legally Justify Fractional-Reserve Banking", Huerta de Soto considers the possibility "that a certain group of bank customers (or for the sake of argument, all of them) enter into a deposit contract aware and fully accepting that banks will invest (or loan, etc.) a large portion of the money they deposit". In this case, argues Huerta de Soto, "the supposed authorization from the depositors lacks legal validity" because few lay-persons understand the instability inherent in fractional-reserve banking: they believe their deposit is guaranteed, which Huerta de Soto considers a (near universal) misconception. As evidence of the true wishes of depositors, he cites the riots that resulted when banks suspended payments during the 1998–2002 Argentine great depression.[24]

In a review for the Mises Institute's Review of Austrian Economics, Institute Associated Scholar Leland B. Yeager called the book "the most thorough treatment in print of Austrian ideas on banking and the business cycle".[26] Mises Institute Senior Fellow and former United States representativeRon Paul endorsed Huerta de Soto's view that fractional reserve banking is the cause of financial instability.[27][28] An Institute of Economic Affairs review described The Theory of Dynamic Efficiency as "A major new collection in the field of Austrian economics" and called Huerta de Soto "a leading Spanish scholar".[29]

The Austrian School: Market Order and Entrepreneurial Creativity. Cheltenham (UK); Northampton (MA, USA): E. Elgar. 2008. p. 129. ISBN9781847207685. OCLC494726098. Presents an exposition of the main tenets of the Austrian School of Economics. This book also explains the differences between the Austrian and the neoclassical (including the Chicago School) approaches to economics. It covers reviews of the contributions of the main Austrian economists, and analysis of the major objections to Austrian economics. (WorldCat summary)[32]

^Reviewed in: Grassl, Wolfgang (March 22, 2010). "Theory of Dynamic Efficiency. (Book review)". Journal of Markets & Morality. Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty, from HighBeam Research. Retrieved 14 June 2013. This book contains twenty essays, sixteen of which have already appeared elsewhere during the period 1994–2004. Topics include the methodology and history of economics, entrepreneurship, socialism, nationalism, central banks and free banking, ethics, and liberal social thought (in the European sense of the term).